Avery Elementary School

MRH ECC is a great place for a child to learn and grow. My oldest attended from preschool all the way to 2nd grade. Her curiosity was not only welcomed but encouraged. She was part of the gifted classes in 2nd grade and Ms. Swboda was great at stretching her academically. My youngest is a special education student and he has shown tremendous growth from preschool and now in kindergarten. He was non verbal in preschool with little vocalizations and now he is more vocal and trying to use sentences. This is due in part to his team that works with him on a daily basis.

The 4 year old preschool program is ridiculously inappropriate for preschoolers. The children are forced to sit for several hours each day and learn how to color within the lines. The teachers will make them redo their work until it meets their unreasonable expectations. I do not know about the other grade levels in this school but I do know that your social standing and how much income you make is of great importance. I would not at all be surprised if the teachers play favorites based on who the student's parents are. The Catholic parishes and schools in the St. Louis area are not doing so well and my above review probably has a lot to do with their struggles. Many of the schools and parishes are expected to be closed by the Archdiocese sometime in the next year or so, probably for the best.

I have 2 kids at TCS. One was a student from kindergarten to 3rd grade and the other just did preschool.To sum up the school in 1 sentence, I don’t think it’s worth the cost of admission. We had a small 3k a year scholarship so were still paying close to 20k a kid.3rd grade was the only year that actually blew me away. The teachers were the phenomenal and I saw real growth. That grade we got our money’s worth.Pre-k for my daughter was also very good but I don’t think it was any better than our phenomenal preschool before moving.2nd grade was good but I felt no better than a good public school.I was not at all impressed with kindergarten or 1st grade. We were locked into a contract so we couldn’t switch. My son has dyslexia and I had to repeatedly remind people that he was supposed to be getting time with their learning specialist. I decided to pay for outside tutoring. The final straw was learning that only the 1st - 3rd grade teachers had teachers certificates. Many didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree in a related field. Kinder teacher with a generic art degree. 4th grade teacher with a marketing degree. I was also super upset when they started enrolling higher number of kids. 27 kids in a classroom! That’s insanity when you are paying 20k a year for tuition. I love their focus on outdoors, exploration, learning by experience but I honestly only saw that occur in 3rd grade. Their head of school gave himself a big raise and the teacher’s still don’t make as much as they should. They cut staffing and it appears spent that money on making the building look nicer, which seems fine u less you realize the number of positions they cut and the enrollment increase for classes. Needless to say we pulled our kids after my oldest’s contract was over going into 4th grade.

As a current student at Holy Redeemer, I find this school amazing and so enjoyable. The school has amazing leadership and many clubs. All the students and teachers are kind and the atmosphere at the school is so positive. All school masses on Fridays are so fun, and include everyone. This school Is great.